New Study of Health Effects of Electronic Cigarettes Announced

The University of Texas at San Antonio scholars to begin study of health effects of electronic cigarettes.

As the debate over health risks of electronic cigarettes continues, medical studies like UTSAs newly announced study are likely to increase in popularity.

Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, soothe nicotine cravings without the extensive and harmful side effects of tobacco. But, exactly how safe are they?

There are staunch supporters on both sides for good reason. The anti-electronic cigarette group’s most popular concern is the lack of any evidence (case studies) that e-cigarettes are not harmful. While this reasoning seems to ignore the studies proving tobacco causes cancer, many people seem paranoid about the lack of evidential studies of vapored nicotine intake.

The pro-e-cig fans counter with the logic —no studies have proven e-cigarettes harmful, notably citing the proof of the harmful effects tobacco products: According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), cigarette smoking causes about 1 of every 5 deaths in the United States each year.

One thing both groups desire, for sure, is the development of more studies, which is one reason why this new UTSA study is so important.

William Cooke and Donovan Fogt have been awarded $30,000 in seed funding from UTSA to find out just how harmful e-cigs are. The UTSA kinesiologists will team up with Assistant Professor Caroline Rickards at the University of North Texas Health Science Center to collect baseline data about the effects of e-cigarettes on the body's basic physiological health.

For the past half dozen years, companies have been marketing e-cigarettes to smokers who want to decrease their risk of the serious health problems associated with conventional cigarette smoking. While e-cigarettes deliver vaporized pure nicotine (of different levels by brand) rather than the combination of thousands of toxins in tobacco such as carbon monoxide, very little research has been done about the effects of inhaling vaporized nicotine.

In this yearlong study, researchers will monitor the effects inhaling vaporized nicotine has on a person's heart rate, blood pressure, resting metabolic rate, physical work capacity and brain blood flow.

Kinesiology and health-related careers students at UTSA will also conduct research alongside the scholars, giving them the valuable opportunity to learn quantitative research methods as groundwork for their future careers in academia and health-related professions.

The approach the scholars will follow is the hypothesis that vaporized nicotine stimulates the human nervous system in ways that could seriously impact daily living.

The research team believes the inhalation of vaporized nicotine has the potential to increase a person's resting metabolism, making exercise problematic. They also believe the study will show it prevents the cardiovascular system from properly regulating arterial pressure and decreases the brain's ability to regulate blood flow.

For the researchers, this study is an important first step to understanding the physiological complications and public health concerns surrounding the use of e-cigarettes. It will also provide a better understanding of the health effects of pure nicotine on the autonomic nervous system without the many harmful poisons found in tobacco products.

The results of this study are likely to impact the future of electronic cigarettes. At the very least, it will spark other studies either aiming to disclaim it or to validate it.

Either way, a better understanding of the effects of vaporized nicotine will emerge.